Breaking in (or in other words, GET US OUT OF HERE!)

I was going to post these pictures last week as a joke with the awesome title of breaking in. Little did I know that the day after we had to break into our own home, someone else was going to break in and steal all our money.

Let me back up. Our house ridiculously has lots of different doors that lock, but there are no keys to them. We have been locked in different areas of our house several times since we’ve lived here, and we have had to resort to breaking in through the mosquito nets and in through an open window so we can unlock the doors from the inside.

On Tuesday after school, we were getting ready for our Halloween party when I found that one of the babies had locked my bedroom door. The costumes and my bag were in the bedroom so I couldn’t use my car keys to drive anywhere. Michael was in charge of the party and was already over at the church setting up, so it was really inconvenient for him to come home. We decided to send Hannah through our bedroom window and just let us in. Look how easy it is…

No big deal we thought. Not the first time, and probably won’t be the last. I was going to blog about it all on it’s own and then some more serious events unfolded today.

I had gone early morning paddling with some friends and took the water camera with me. This afternoon when the kids were napping and Michael was at the store, I hooked up the camera to the computer to see the photos I had taken out on the ocean. To my utter disbelief, up on my computer comes a photo of a man’s “private unit” IN OUR BEDROOM. I was so confused, what kind of joke was this? but immediately started to feel sick. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was obviously in our bedroom so I knew that a strange man had been in our house.

When Michael came home from the store, I brought him into the bedroom and showed him. We figured out from the date on the photo that this has happened on Wednesday morning, within minutes of Michael leaving the house for work. We must have been watched. We hadn’t noticed anything unusual at home the last few days so hadn’t picked up on it. Michael asked me if I kept any cash at home and I showed him where I kept the spare money for emergencies, kid’s allowances etc. It was all gone. There was about $140 in cash, and they had taken it all.

When we moved here, I had decided not to bring the kid’s piggy banks in case they broke, so I put their money into small ziplock bags with their names on it. Matthew and Benjamin had the most (only about $6 each) but the thief had taken it all. Who takes a little kid’s allowance money? Added to that, we have small tins for the kid’s to learn how to save. Each month when they get their allowance, they pay 10% tithing to the church, 10% to college savings, 10% to mission, and 10% to savings. They get to spend the rest. There were tins for all of these purposes, and they were all empty. The kid’s mission savings gone. Their college savings, gone, their tithing, everything. Not that it added up to a lot, probably only about $40 or $50, but that was several years of little kids’ sacrifices, all gone by some pervert who then thought it would be hilarious to take a photo of his private parts as his signiture to the crime.

Is this really happening? Get us out of here!!!!! Are we safe here anymore? Will they come back another day?

On one hand I feel really grateful that all they want it the cash. I mean, our computer, TV, DVD player, video camera etc were all in plain view, but they didn’t take any of that. They weren’t interested in our passports, documents, or social security cards, just the cash. That certainly makes things easier, but seriously, what’s next?

We called the police who said they’d be right over. Two and a half hours later they showed up. The kids thought it was pretty cool when five fully uniformed police officers came into our house, asking questions, looking at photos, and drawing floor plans! I gave a statement and emailed off the photos. At least now I can delete them from my hard drive!

Michael didn’t want me to post this because he didn’t want to worry our parents, but the truth is, we don’t really feel threatened. It’s not like in the US with dodgy serial killers like you see on TV, this was just a dumb kid who wanted our cash. We need to keep our windows closed, our doors locked, our cars locked, and not carry any more cash!

The other interesting thing is that this morning in our family devotional, we studied about the importance of learning to love our enemies. Hannah has been having problems with a girl at school, so we’ve been talking a lot about nice things that we can do, even for those who are not nice to us. I feel blessed that we spoke about this only this morning, because events like this can help you to become bitter and angry, but what we need to work on now is not letting one dumb person’s actions affect how we treat all of the other people around us. We don’t know who did it, and we definitely can’t allow ourselves to become judgemental and start generalizing the actions of a few onto a whole set of people or culture. Easier said than done, but we know we’ll be happier if we can learn to love everyone…

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Responses

Are you kidding? Wow! Each post I read from your blog or facebook I feel your strength of love, forgiveness, and being grateful for everything! I am a better person because of you. Thanks for being such a great example of all those attributes!

I’m so sorry that happened. And your poor kids! I’m sure they were majorly disappointed!! Your kids are so blessed to be learning from you and Michael how to put the gospel in action: not just be a hearer of the word, but a doer! This American Samoa experience is giving you plenty of opportunities to really live your faith/be tested to the fullest!